What strategies can students use to ensure that group work is an effective, ethical learning method for all group members?
• Understand clearly what the group is to do. • Have a clear and fair division of responsibility for each group member. • Discuss the group’s expectations for work quality and identify the group’s final goal. • Make sure that all members of the group know about appropriate citation, referencing and acknowledgements. • Encourage each group member to keep a personal journal in which they record their contribution to the work of the group – this can be used to inform the teacher of individual contributions. • Check the final draft for citation and attribution errors before submitting it for marking. • Communicate frequently with the teacher – if there are problems with unequal contributions to the overall group task, discuss this with the teacher. • Seek support from your teacher or school counsellor if you are being bullied into unethical behaviour.
